Construction for head-free rail joints



July 12 1927 2 Sheet,

Fild Feb. 7. 1927 l ll J 4 l. if! [Ll 1,635,648 M MMMMMMMMM ON CONSTRUCTION FO'R HEAD FREE RAIL JOINTS C: i i

flfilieaz Thonwon,

Patented July 12,1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IG'LIOD Henson, OI CHELSEA, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO THE MID JOINT OOH- rm, OI NEW YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORATION OF NEW YOBK.

oons'rnucrron roe nun-rm nan. some.

Application med February 7, 1987. Serial 110. 168,440.

illhis invention relates to a supplementary feature of improvement for the head-free type of rail joint wherein the joint bar has a bearingl in andat the head fillet of the rail. a A

stinguishing characteristic of the head-free rail joint of the type disclosed in the reissue patent of W. P. Thomson No. 15,773 granted February 19,1924, is to provide the head of the joint bar with a clear-- ance from the underside of the rail head, and with a loa'din engagement at the head fillet of the rail. Such an anchorage for the inner head projection of the rail joint bar has been found most effectively to assimilate the loading and deflection forces to which a rail joint is subjected, and to bring the head of the bar into solid resistance to load deflection.

In the application and adjustment of the head-free oint, the base of the bar moves inwardl thereby oscillating the bar on .a longitu inal axislocated approximately within the re 'on of the bolt holes causing the head of o bar to ride upwardly and outwardl on the rail which inclines the outer bo ting face of the bar toward and against the upper portions of the nuts (and bolt heads). This action slightly cants the bolting face downwardly and inwardly from its normal vertical plane, and serves to act asea nut look.

This adjustment occurs, however, without materially spreading the out-to-out distance between the opposite splice bars alon the plane of the center line of the bolt oles, thereby obviating excessive increase of the bolt strain. At the same time there necessarily is some deflection, due to this adjustvment of the joint or splice bar, of the bolt ends, and it is the purpose an'd intent of the present invention to provide an improvement which reduces the amplitude of move ment of the bolt ends.

A principal object, therefore, of this 1nvention' is to provide a bolt-conserving construction for head-free railjoints which the deflection of the bolt ends, thereby obviating excessive or abnormal strains being set up therein due either to tightening up the joint when applying the jo nt bars, or to the subsequent tightening of the bolts to take up adjustment for any wear that might occur on the lower fishing surfaces over the rail base flan es.

While the invention is susceptlble of structural modification without departing from the spirit or scope thereof a preferred and practical embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a cross sectional view of a headfree rail joint, embodyin the present'improvement and showing tie initial relative position of the various parts prior to the inward oscillation of the bars under the force of the tightening of the nuts.

. Fig. 2 is a view of one joint bar showing by full and dotted lines the feature whichprovides for each nut (and bolt head) initially tightened against the bolting face with the inner nut face in a downwardly and outwardly slanting plane, and subsequently as-, suming a vertical 'plane and then a downwardly and inwardly slanting plane.

Fig. '3 is a view of a modification showing how the bolting face can be formed to present a downwardly and outwardly inclined nut bearin by forming a bearing rib or projection elow the center. line of the bolt holes.

Fig. 4 is an elevation of the modified bar of Flg. 3 shown applied to the rails.

In practicing the present invention all of the desirable and characteristic features of the head-free rail joint are preserved and maintained, so for illustrative purposes there is shown 1n the drawings a rail joint of that type which includes the rail R having the rounded head fillet bearings 11, each head fillet bearing providing the anchorage for the inner head projection 2 of the joint bar 3 whose foot portion 4 has a fishing engagement with the lower fishing bearing 5 provided at the upper side of the rail base flange.

According to the present invention, as above pointed out, it is proposed to make an alteration of, or on, the bolting face of the joint bar a ainst which is clamped the head, 6 and nut% of the joint bolt 8, and as the action of the bolt at the head end thereof is the same as at the nut end it will be understood that reference herein to the nut and to the nut bearing will applyequally to the head of the bolt, and the terms are therefore intended to include the bolt head.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings the object of the invention is attained by providin the joint bar at its outer side with a cant boltin face 9 which presents a nut bearing that inclines downwardl and outwardly from the vertical plane 0 the bar indicated by the line oa on Fig. 1. In other words the said bolting face or nut hearing may be said to be downwardly divergent with reference to the central perpendicular axis of the bar, a :v.

The effect of the construction described is to so dispose the bolting face of the bar that its characteristic oscillation, as the wear on the lower fishing face of the bar progresses, causes the bolting face or nut bearin first to assumev a vertical position and afterward to change to a downwardly and inwardly slanting position. This oscillation of course is produced by the initial tightening of the nuts and the subsequent tightening of the nuts to take up the wear re erred to.

. It will be seen from the illustration of Fig. 2 of the drawings that in the initial ti htened condition the nut on the bolt takes a caring against and in parallelism to the canted bolting face thereby tending to defleet, and actually deflecting the end of the bolt upwardly as indicated by the full line 6. Then as the progressive oscillation of the joint bar occurs, under further tightening, the bolt end will deflect back to the horizontal indicated bythe dotted line 0 and then deflect below the horizontal plane to its downwardly deflected position indicated by the full line d. However, it will now have been observed that the upward and downward deflection of the bolt end will be equally divided, as to amplitude, above and belowthe horizontal, with the result of greatly reducing the bolt strain that is likely to occur where the bolt end deflects all in one direction in the case of a joint bar having an initiall vertical bolting face, and the entire oscil ation of the joint bar, under adjustment being inwardly from a vertical lane.

/ On Fig. 2 of the drawings the'dotted'lines a and e respectivel desi ate the progressive planes assume by t e boltin face of the joint bar as the lower part of the bar swings or oscillates inwardly first to the vertical plane, and finally to an inwardly and downwardly slanting plane.

In Fi s. 3 and 4 of the drawings is shown the mo ification wherein the inclined boltin face, or nut bearing, designated by the re erence number 9 may be provided by forming the bar on its outer side with a bearing rib or projection 10 arranged below the center lines of the bolt holes and preferficing any of the advantages of the invention.

I claim l. A construction for head-free rail joints including in combination with the rails and the clampin bolts, a head-free splice bar provided Wit 1 an outer bolting face presenting a nut hearing which inclines downwardly from the vertical plane of the bar.

2. A construction for head-free rail joints including in combination with the rails and the clamping bolts, a head-free splice bar provided with an outer bolting face presenting a nut hearing which slants downwardly and outwardly from the vertical plane of the bar.

3.'A construction for rail joints including the rails, clamplng bolts, and a head-free splice bar having its bolting. face so disposed in relation to the central vertical plane of the bar that the characteristic oscillation of the plane of the bolting face first causes this plane to assume a vertical position and subsequently to shift to a downwardly and inwardly slanting position.

4. A construction for rail joints including the rails, clamping bolts, and a head-free splice bar having a bolting face presenting a nut bearing so disposed in relation to the central vertical plane of the bar that the plane of the inner face of each nut when tightened is caused first to assume a downwardly and outwardly slanting position and subsequently to progressively assume a vertical position and a downwardly. and in-' wardly slanting position.

5. A construction for head-free railjoints including the rails, clamping bolts, and a head-free joint bar, each nut in its initial tightened position having its inner face disposed in a downwardly and outwardly slanting plane and when subsequently tightened assuming first a position in a vertical lane and fina 1y HSSUIIIIIIO a posltlon in a ownwardly and lllWiLI'dfY slantin plane.

6. A construction for head ree rail joints including the rails, clamping bolts and a.

joint bar having the ma or portion'of its upper loading engagement with the head fillet of the rail, the initial, medial and final dispositions of the bolting face of said splice bar, as said bolting face is oscillated toward the rails by tightenin up wear, being such t at the head end and of the nuts to take the major portioo of the ofbe strained. tly -to positions where the each bolt wlllbestrained alifhtl'toapb-oenterlineof-eboltw1ll'betilted' 1ightly o eac 19 sition where the center line bolt will downward at each end.

be tilted, first slightly upward at ite'en Inteatimony whereof I hereunto afix my 5 then will resume alin'ement with the no signature. 1

straight center line of the bolt, and

the aforesaid end portions of'eaeh bolt THOMSON. 

